Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Congregation Beth Am
Rabbi David Kornberg: “I think that religion in general and Judaism for me in particular has a lot to offer. We as clergy need to find ways to share that.”
Membership: 550
Rabbi: David Kornberg
Age: 45
Born: Los Angeles
Formation: University of California-San Diego; Jewish Theological Seminary, New York
Years Ordained: 18
San Diego Reader: How long do you spend writing your sermon?
Rabbi David Kornberg: High Holy Day sermons I spend sometimes all through the summer finishing them and polishing them; but the typical Saturday morning Sabbath sermon I work on for a couple days beforehand during the week.
SDR: What is your favorite subject on which to preach?
RK: I love to take a text and make it relevant. It’s not a particular topic, but that’s what I try to do on a weekly basis — take the Torah text or other texts we have and make them relevant today.
SDR: What is your main concern as a member of the clergy?
RK: I think it goes back to relevance. I think that religion in general and Judaism for me in particular has a lot to offer. We as clergy need to find ways to share that with people that are out there, and get the message across that the world is challenging and difficult, and we have tough choices to make. Fortunately, we have a great place to go to get guidance — moral and ethical guidance, personal guidance in terms of how to progress and handle some of those difficulties in life.
SDR: Why Judaism?
RK: Judaism for me is a great balance between ideas and actions. I think we need both in this world. Judaism finds the mix between those two concepts — allowing us to take the ideas and values we have and put them into action. Judaism really believes that ideas that are not put into action are sort of meaningless — and to simply act without the moral and ethical backing behind it doesn’t get you where you want to go. So, I think you have to have that mix — and Judaism does that very well
SDR: Where’s the strangest place you ever found God?
RK: I was working as a hospital chaplain and I was struggling with my own beliefs at that particular time, as we do sometimes. I was asking all sorts of questions — such as “Where’s God?” and “Wouldn’t it be great if we could see God and know Him without any doubt?” Then I met with an AIDS patient, and I was able to hear God’s voice through this patient. As he asked me those same sorts of questions, he had me try to answer them. It was a very powerful moment.
RK: Where do you go when you die?
SDR: There are actually a lot of different views in Judaism. I actually taught a class on the Jewish views of life after death. When I titled the class “The Jewish Views,” my assistant tried to edit it to “The Jewish View.” I went back and told him that it had to be “Views” because there are a lot of them. But if we crystalize it to its most basic, there’s a part of us which comes from God, and that’s eternal and can’t die. That part is rejoined with God and those are the parts in people that continue on after we die. What it looks like and where we go when we die — whether we’re going to be in houses or whatnot — I don’t know. But that sense of self and who we are, that identity of who we are as a person and the things we’ve done — all that remains.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Congregation Beth Am
Congregation Beth Am
Rabbi David Kornberg: “I think that religion in general and Judaism for me in particular has a lot to offer. We as clergy need to find ways to share that.”
Membership: 550
Rabbi: David Kornberg
Age: 45
Born: Los Angeles
Formation: University of California-San Diego; Jewish Theological Seminary, New York
Years Ordained: 18
San Diego Reader: How long do you spend writing your sermon?
Rabbi David Kornberg: High Holy Day sermons I spend sometimes all through the summer finishing them and polishing them; but the typical Saturday morning Sabbath sermon I work on for a couple days beforehand during the week.
SDR: What is your favorite subject on which to preach?
RK: I love to take a text and make it relevant. It’s not a particular topic, but that’s what I try to do on a weekly basis — take the Torah text or other texts we have and make them relevant today.
SDR: What is your main concern as a member of the clergy?
RK: I think it goes back to relevance. I think that religion in general and Judaism for me in particular has a lot to offer. We as clergy need to find ways to share that with people that are out there, and get the message across that the world is challenging and difficult, and we have tough choices to make. Fortunately, we have a great place to go to get guidance — moral and ethical guidance, personal guidance in terms of how to progress and handle some of those difficulties in life.
SDR: Why Judaism?
RK: Judaism for me is a great balance between ideas and actions. I think we need both in this world. Judaism finds the mix between those two concepts — allowing us to take the ideas and values we have and put them into action. Judaism really believes that ideas that are not put into action are sort of meaningless — and to simply act without the moral and ethical backing behind it doesn’t get you where you want to go. So, I think you have to have that mix — and Judaism does that very well
SDR: Where’s the strangest place you ever found God?
RK: I was working as a hospital chaplain and I was struggling with my own beliefs at that particular time, as we do sometimes. I was asking all sorts of questions — such as “Where’s God?” and “Wouldn’t it be great if we could see God and know Him without any doubt?” Then I met with an AIDS patient, and I was able to hear God’s voice through this patient. As he asked me those same sorts of questions, he had me try to answer them. It was a very powerful moment.
RK: Where do you go when you die?
SDR: There are actually a lot of different views in Judaism. I actually taught a class on the Jewish views of life after death. When I titled the class “The Jewish Views,” my assistant tried to edit it to “The Jewish View.” I went back and told him that it had to be “Views” because there are a lot of them. But if we crystalize it to its most basic, there’s a part of us which comes from God, and that’s eternal and can’t die. That part is rejoined with God and those are the parts in people that continue on after we die. What it looks like and where we go when we die — whether we’re going to be in houses or whatnot — I don’t know. But that sense of self and who we are, that identity of who we are as a person and the things we’ve done — all that remains.
Comments